The irony? of Karen Hughes

[T Roosevelt]

kos takes apart Karen Hughes on her propaganda trip to the Middle East in his recent post, but there was one thing she said that he didn't address, and indicates a certain amount of ignorance or hypocrisy on the part of this administration:

Hughes's simple, sincere and unadorned language reveals the administration's inner mind. Her ideas on terrorism and its solution are straightforward. "Terrorists," she said, "their policies force young people, other people's daughters and sons, to strap on bombs and blow themselves up." That is: somehow, magically, these evil-doers coerce the young to commit suicide. If only they would understand us, the tensions would dissolve.

This could apply equally to our commander-in-chief, on whose orders tens of thousands of our young men and women are in Iraq, raping and killing (not all obviously, but enough) the Iraqi people in order to "save" them. The only difference is for terrorists, it's voluntary. She obviously doesn't know the definition of the word "force."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. She doesn't get it

a person has had to have lost all hope or has had to get very very enraged to agree to commit suicide. Maybe, just maybe, if the government decided to find out WHY these people have these strong feelings, maybe we could do something about the situation so that no on commits suicide or kills anyone.

[existentialist]

3. But that would require

the Bush Administration to listen to things it does not wish to hear or consider.

[existentialist]

2. Good point.

I think we could find thousands of good points our deluded undersecretary has missed, but yours should definitely be recognized.

[LSparkle]

4. None of the BFEE or their minions have ever felt suicidal

They're privileged, they never have to worry about being held accountable, they have people to bail them out whenever they may hit the bottom ... If you can't get inside the mind of someone without hope, someone who sees no sense in going on, you can't comprehend what needs to be done to combat it. You have to have fucking EMPATHY which these people sorely lack.

[Hawkowl]

5. mercenaries

I would point out that for many of us on the left, it is politically, monumentally asinine, idiotic if not suicidal to talk about our troops raping and killing.

At least the troops have to abide by the Uniform code of military justice. Unfortunately the outsourcing (hiring mercenaries as private "security" by this fascist administration to Haliburton, Blackwater, et. al. is leading to atrocities that are not being addressed.

Just think how hard it is to hold our leaders in this country, supposedly ruled by law, accountable? Can you imagine how impossible it is to hold criminals given contracts, licenses to kill, loot, and torture, by OUR government in a lawless country?

Do not fall into the trap of tarring with the same brush, our soldiers, our national guardsmen, who are our friends and neighbors, who are forced to ignore, these atrocities. They are not allowed to stop the lawlessness of the war profiteers. It is only occasionally that you hear of troops taking matters into their own hands, such as a group of marines did a few months ago, when they "captured" some of these mercenaries and roughed them up.

Blame the leaders, blame the generals, blame the war profiteers. The troops may end up in Leavenworth, for either refusing to go to Iraq or they may end up in Leavenworth for following orders (Lyndie England) once they get there. This is intolerable.

[T Roosevelt]

7. While I agree in general with your point

and mercenaries are a major problem wrt to the prisoner abuse, it was not mercenaries that conducted "shock and awe." It was not mercenaries that pretty much leveled Fallujah. From the standpoint of killing, all are complicit in that they are forced to follow the orders of their superiors, which was what I was pointing out.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. Stop hiring cronies to do a job that requires a professional

She thinks U.S. Policy can be sold like Coca-Cola.